1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a database visualization system that visualizes relation between data in a database.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, in a database management method, a graph or the like has been used to visualize a relation between data. For example, there is disclosed an information visualization system that visualizes and overlooks a relation between data to make it possible to know an overall characteristic thereof (For example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-225940).
By the way, data stored in a database may be used by a plurality of users, and not only data access or output but also new data input or update may be performed by a plurality of users. In this manner, when data input or update is performed by a plurality of users, it becomes difficult to fully know a relation between data in a database. For example, in the case where reference source data is referred to by a plurality of referent data, when a user updates the reference source data without fully knowing a relation or a dependency relation between the data, there is a problem in that the update also affects the referent data that are not originally desired to be changed.
Particularly, in the field of video game development, a plurality of data used in a game program are managed in a database and are updated by a plurality of game developers. For example, in the case where a plurality of different objects refer to the same material (data specifying a material quality of an object), the same shader (program determining a color of an object), or the same texture (image file mapped to an object), and more specifically, in the case where a wall object and a desk object refer to a texture of a woodgrain, the shapes of surfaces of both the wall object and the desk object are changed when the texture is updated.
However, when a user, who desires to change a shape of a certain object, updates a texture without fully knowing a dependency relation between reference source texture data and referent object data, a problem occurs in other objects to which the texture is applied. In order to prevent the occurrence of such a problem, a game developer needs to update data while taking time to examine a mutual dependency relation between data.